Administrative Instructions under the Patent Cooperation Treaty

Section 308
Marking of the Sheets
of the International Application and of the Translation Thereof

(a) Upon receipt of papers purporting to be an international application, the receiving Office shall indelibly mark the date of actual receipt on the request of each copy received.

(b) The receiving Office shall indelibly mark the international application number referred to in Section 307 in the upper right-hand corner of each sheet of each copy of the purported international application and of any translation of the international application furnished under Rules 12.3 or 12.4.

(c) If a positive determination is made under Rule 20.2, the receiving Office shall mark on the request the name of the receiving Office and the words “PCT International Application” or “Demande internationale PCT”. If the official language of the receiving Office is neither English nor French, the words “International Application” or “Demande internationale” may be accompanied by a translation of these words in the official language of the receiving Office.

(d) If a negative determination is made under Rule 20.4 or a declaration is made under Article 14(4), the letters “PCT” shall be deleted by the receiving Office from the indication of the international application number on any papers marked previously with that number, and the said number shall be used without such letters in any future correspondence relating to the purported international application.